SSYC... My First Official Yarn Crawl...

It's true...
I've never actually participated in a yarn crawl or LYS tour.
When I worked at So Much Yarn I had the pleasure of working the weekend of the LYS Tour but I've never done it.

Well, the SSYC, South Sound Yarn Crawl covers 9 shops that aren't included for whatever reason in the Seattle LYS Tour that covers around 25 shops in the area.

Maybe they're too far off the beaten path.
It's not because they aren't in Seattle because there are shops way way way out of town that are included in the Seattle LYS tour.

Whatever the reason, it's not important.
What is important is that Mary and I both took Friday off and hit the road.
I caught the 7:15 Ferry to Kingston, Arrived at Mary's about 8:00.

Mary and I have the same china. Mine came from my Grandmother, her's came from her mom.

Tried making friends with her fluffy dog Mae.
Someday she'll come to love me, for now I'll respect her tenative personality and love her from afar.

Our first stop was Amanda's Art Yarn in Poulsbo, WA.
Fabulous shop.

Amanda even dyes some of her own yarn and offers it for sale along with the rest of her merchandise.
Amanda's pattern, Jade Flower Wrap was #1 on Ravelry on Friday morning during the yarn crawl.

Very Exciting!
I bought a skein of Amanda's hand dyed sock yarn in the color Birthday Party. It's fitting since this girl is going to be turning 40 in 10 days.

10 days!
40!
wasn't I just 22 getting a new tattoo?
Can you believe that 22 was 18 years ago and it feel like it was last week.
What the hell happened?

This has been happening a lot lately. Mention the word forty and my mind veers off in all manner of crazy.

Our next stop was Port Orchard for Debbie Macombers A Good Yarn shop..
They had snacks out.
All the shops had snack out
but Debbies had chocolate sandwich cookies and I may have snarfed a few of them...
Debbie's is always great.

Next, Rainy Day Yarns in Gig Harbor. Cute little shop, amazing supply of yarn. Their free pattern was not my favorite but who knows, it may grown on me... 

After Gig Harbor we crossed the bridge and hit Tacoma and popped into Fibers Etc.
This shop is located in Tacoma's theater district. A cute, interesting old brick building that houses all manner of the arts.

The shop is tiny. I couldn't really get a good look around because there were two other people in the shop and that's two too many. I grabbed my free pattern, ate a cookie, and bugged...

seriously creepy dolls... equally long slightly creepy hallway

There was a long hallway in the building that had some weird dolls nailed to the wall. Mary insisted they were well done, and they were, but they were creepy. Creepy to the point that I swear they come alive at night.

I would not want to be there when they did. I don't think they would want to play chutes and ladders.

 

 

trapped

 

Following Tacoma we boogied over to Fife and Firwood Farms Alpaca's. I'll let the photos speak for themselves. What a fun farm!!

I think the black one and I are kindred spirits... You stay crazy my little alpaca...

this little guy is a rescue and he's still shy and healing but I said 'smile' and he held his head up proudly. i love him

We were starting to fade at this point so we hit Yorkshire Yarns in Lakewood, stopped for lunch in a weird round bar where we guzzled some beer, knit, and devoured fish and chips...

Then we were off to Olympia for Canvans Works... they sell fabric too and their fabric is wonderful.
They carry some great yarn and have a varied selection for all knitters.

Olympia to Shelton where we popped into Fancy Image Yarns and caught Myra during a lull so we could sit and chat. I love Myra. I love Myra's yarn... I bought some navy blue to knit a pullover for my newest nephew's pending arrival... her yarn is soft, superwash merino, and it'll be perfect for the little nugget.

Myra's SSYC Yarn colorway... isn't she brilliant!

We left Myra's a little after five and made our way to Allyn for our final stop at Allyn Knitting & Spinning Supply.

Phew!
It was a fun fun fun day!!

Guess where I'm going Saturday??

Mary and I have the best time together.
I made it my job to update America's Knitting's facebook page with our progress and I hope everyone enjoyed it...